Premium
Decoupling of autonomic and cognitive emotional reactions after cerebellar stroke
Author(s) -
Ani JeanMarie,
Ptak Radek,
CaldaraSchnetzer AnneSarah,
Khateb Asaid,
Pollermann Branka Zei
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.10549
Subject(s) - psychology , cerebellum , neuroscience , skin conductance , reinforcement , cognition , reactivity (psychology) , autonomic nervous system , audiology , medicine , heart rate , pathology , social psychology , alternative medicine , blood pressure , biomedical engineering
Emotional blunting can be found after cerebellar lesions. However, the mechanism of such a modification is not clear. We present a patient with emotional flattening and increased risk taking after left cerebellar infarct who had an impaired autonomic reactivity to negative as compared with positive reinforcement. This impairment was demonstrated by the patient's undifferentiated skin conductance responses to negative and positive reinforcement, whereas controls produced larger skin conductance responses after negative feedback. The cooccurrence of emotional flattening and undifferentiated autonomic reactions to positively and negatively valenced stimuli strengthens the role of the cerebellum in the modulation of the autonomic responses. Ann Neurol 2003;53:654–658